


Perceptions

by red_savage



Category: Ultimates - Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man
Genre: Cliche: Physical Imperfection, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-21
Updated: 2010-08-21
Packaged: 2017-10-11 04:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_savage/pseuds/red_savage





	Perceptions

Title: Perceptions  
Author: red_savage   
Fandom: Ultimates - Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man  
Cliche: Physical Imperfection  
Character: Tony Stark/Iron Man  
Rating/Warning: SFW / PG  
Beta: jazzypom was briefly consulted as to a line or two, all typos belong to the dog.  
Word Count: 525  
Summery / Author's Note: It is what it is.

The teeth geometrically sized orderly and shining white like the first snow-fall with a dazzling smile. He has dark raven-wing black hair, with smooth tanned skin, and sharp blue eyes. Superficially nothing was unusual with him. Growing up was a different story. His eyes weren't the only thing blue about him. The bio-armor he wore then was bright electric blue. The engineered bacteria structure clung to, protected and fed off of him. It ate at the top layer of skin cells, including his hair and nails. Growing up he was a blue, bald little boy.

Now he looked like your average billionaire, if there was really such a thing as an average billionaire. Yes, he looks normal, better than normal some might say. Not a thing amiss with him in the world; however a small sample of hair or blood told a very different tale. The DNA of his cells resembles nothing seen on this planet called Earth. They contain information for bio-logical structures that aren't supposed to exist according to science. He looks human sure, but the cells inside his body hold information for constant regeneration. His body is a product of human DNA, mutated by exposure to a virus.

His perceptions are almost normalized with the bio-armor. Without it he is in constant agony from the pain of hyper-stimulation and sensory input. A gentle touch would register as blinding pain; with it, it hardly registers at all as things like warmth and kinetic energy are absorbed. The simple sensation most take for granted in a hug is lost in a maze of reactive bacteria. Is it really an imperfection, if you don't know it's supposed to be there? Is it truly an enhancement once you discover it?

The Ultimates have him only because of his respectability, his money and his looks. His name has ranked high consistently in product placement tests; since he started running the company, it has been in the top five hundred. How much would that change if the world knew he was little more than a lab accident from a science project out of one of his father's labs? Would the world care?

Where the virus came from, none can say for sure. Some say it came off a comet or an asteroid impact. Howard Stark took that secret and many others to his grave. If his son knows, he's not telling, either. Tony has re-engineered his father's designs for bio-armor several times over; its secret remaining. Some say it was bio-engineered in government labs. Who knows?

Now along long his naked arms or legs his skin is not blue, rather the dim gleam of metal dots along at various points. The access port implants installed in the limbs aren't an imperfection, they're an enhancement. Like the bio-armor they've been upgrade several times. Like everything else about him they're usually obscured. He doesn't want the world to know how different he really is from the rest of it. He wears the mask of the friendly and amusing drunk and the sharp tailored suit of the business man. Now, he controls how he is perceived; without flaw. Is that wrong?

Fin.


End file.
